President Donald Trump said Thursday night he believes Special Counsel Robert Mueller will treat him fairly in his investigation into possible collusion between the 2016 campaign and Russia.
‘There’s been no collusion. But I think he’s going to be fair,’ Trump told the New York Times in an interview at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The comments come after Republicans and Trump supporters have raised questions about Mueller’s team, and at a time when many wondered if the president was preparing to fire the Special Counsel.
However, the White House ensures that option is not currently on the table.
President Donald Trump (pictured on Christmas Eve) said Thursday night he believes Special Counsel Robert Mueller will treat him fairly in his investigation into possible collusion between the 2016 campaign and Russia
The comments come after Republicans and Trump supporters have raised questions about Mueller’s team, and at a time when many wondered if the president was preparing to fire the Special Counsel. Mueller is pictured in the US Capitol over the summer
Trump added that the investigation ‘makes the country look very bad and it puts the country in a very bad position.
‘So the sooner it’s worked out, the better it is for the country.’
The President also brought up Eric Holder, former President Barack Obama’s attorney general, suggesting he was more loyal than his own Jeff Sessions.
‘I don’t want to get into loyalty, but I will say this,’ Trump told the New York Times, an outlet he has been feuding with since the early days of the presidential election.
‘Holder protected President Obama. Totally protected him. When you look at the things that they did, and Holder protected the President. And I have great respect for that, I’ll be honest.’
He said it was ‘too bad,’ Sessions decided to recuse himself from the Russia Investigation.
A poll conducted by CNN last week found that more Americans approve than disapprove of how Mueller is handling the Russian investigation. A majority of Americans also said they disapprove of Trump’s handling of the same investigation.
A poll conducted by CNN last week found that more Americans approve than disapprove of how Mueller is handling the Russian investigation. A majority of Americans also said they disapprove of Trump’s handling of the same investigation
Trump also told the Times he has ‘been soft’ on China on trade and complained about oil shipments to North Korea despite sanctions over Pyongyang’s nuclear program.
‘Oil is going into North Korea. That wasn’t my deal!’ he said.
The New York Times interview came a few days after more than
40 bipartisan former government officials and attorneys told President Trump and Congress to leave Mueller alone so he can do his job.
In two letters on Friday, December 22, the former US attorneys and Republican and conservative officials pushed back against efforts to discredit the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The letters come a week after speculation that Trump wanted Mueller fired over recent revelations that two former FBI agents, assigned to invest the alleged collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia, had sent each other hundreds of ‘anti-Trump’ text messages during the campaign and election.
In a pair of letters, the groups said Robert Mueller and his team must be allowed to continue their work, unimpeded.
In one letter, 22 former US attorneys, who served under presidents from Richard Nixon through Barack Obama, said it is ‘critical’ to the ‘interests of justice and public trust to ensure that those charged with conducting complex investigations are allowed to do their jobs free from interference or fear of reprisal.’
Seeking Mueller’s removal ‘would have severe repercussions for Americans’ sense of justice here at home and for our reputation for fairness around the world,’ they wrote in a letter to President Donald Trump on Friday that was coordinated by Georgetown Law’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection.
Trump has repeatedly called investigations into his campaign a ‘witch hunt’ fueled by Democrats still angry about his election win
The second letter was signed by 22 Republican and conservative former members of Congress and other top US officials. It stated that efforts to discredit Mueller’s work ‘undermine the institutions that protect the rule of law and so our nation.’
‘We urge the Administration, members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, and the American public, to support the work of Special Counsel Mueller to its conclusion, whatever it may be,’ reads the open letter signed by officials including former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, former State Department counselor Eliot Cohen and former George W. Bush administration ethics lawyer Richard Painter.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel in the Russia probe in May.
Allies of the president have seized on the messages and other details about Mueller’s team to allege it is biased against Trump.
Trump has repeatedly called investigations into his campaign a ‘witch hunt’ fueled by Democrats still angry about his election win.
Still, Trump and White House officials have said recently that he has no intention of firing Mueller. That decision that would likely be up to Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller.